Imprisonment
by Juliet Mellark
Summary: Clove is only a fourteen-year-old girl. She doesn't know what is she here for, but she only knows she must fight. She has to fight if she wants to get back home, to her District, with her family, her friends...and leave the nightmare the Hunger Games are.


**Hey, this is a little Clove drabble. It's really short and it's just about her life before the Games. Hope you enjoy it!**

_Eyes Open - Taylor Swift_

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_Stab. Punch. Slice him open. To the jugular, Clove! Why do you always tremble when you hit the jugular? It's a weak point, and you have to learn to control weak points. Come on, to the next dummy. Stab. Punch. Slice._

My father's words echo inside my head. My fists bleed and I can barely hold the knife in my hands. The girl I'm fighting is from Twelve, one of the poorer districts. Why can't I just kill her off and return to our camp? It would be easy. The jugular, Clove. My father always scolded me when my hand became wobbly as I aimed at the dummy's jugular. But now it's not a hay dummy, it's a real person. A human being I will kill in a matter of seconds.

"I will kill you, just like we killed that little girl from Eleven," I whisper, trying to scare the girl. She's two years older than me, but I'm sure she isn't as prepared as I am for psychological torture. It was part of my training, after all. "I will kill you with this knife, and then smash your head to pieces."

I sense a fire glowing in the girl's eyes. She's not scared. She dabs at me with a knife, but I jerk to my left and it rips a little sound in the air. I try to stab her arm, but she rolls away and tries to throw her knife at me, but she suddenly stops when I push her to the ground again. Now I will kill her.

For a split of a second, I remember him. Grisham. Why him, now? I'm going to kill the Twelve girl, I shouldn't think about Grisham. But I remember what he used to say about the Hunger Games, the way he would always frown when I hinted I would volunteer this year. I knew he had always cared for me, but I wasn't sure he had ever felt the same way than I did. After all, he hadn't had time to answer, back in the Justice building.

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_My friends Natalie and Leslie left the Justice Building after five minutes together. It was painful to see them walk away, but still I knew I was doing the correct thing. Perhaps I had volunteered too early, some would say. Maybe. I'm just fourteen years old, after all. But I know who I am and what I can do, and I didn't hesitate when our escort asked for volunteers. I had been chosen over eighteen-year-old girls longing to volunteer, just because the public liked me. It felt great to feel the public's warmth, and as I shook hands with my District partner, Cato, I knew I would win this year's Hunger Games._

_When I thought all of my visits were over, I heard the door creaking open and saw a boy coming in. He had bronze hair and blue eyes, just like back when we were kids, playing soldiers in my house's backyard. Back then when no worries tormented us, no Games tore us apart. It seemed only yesterday when I wore my little white sundresses and he wore his over-sized tee's._

_The first thing I did when I saw Grisham coming into the room was gasping. I hadn't expected him to visit me. I knew what he thought of the Hunger Games, and how he would scold me for volunteering. But still, my heart started thumping faster, to the beat of every step Grisham took towards me. When we were just a few centimeters away, he enveloped me in a hug._

_"You're so stupid, Clove," he muttered. He wasn't scolding me, he was just stating the obvious. I knew I was stupid, but I still wanted to try._

_"I want to show everyone what I'm worth," I whispered. "I want my dad to see I'm not a little girl anymore."_

_Grisham looked at me with a slight frown. He didn't seem particularly convinced by my words. Then, he took his hand into his t-shirt, and took out a little rope necklace with a sword carved into a piece of sword. He tied it gently in my neck, and the necklace was left there, resting in my chest._

_"Take it, it will bring you luck," he said._

_I nodded shyly, not daring to look him in the eye. I knew he would never approve whatever I did in the Arena. Would Grisham picture me as a monster if I ever came back? Perhaps he would. No-one knew._

_"You might not come back...alive," he finally said._

_"I will. I promise," I answer, looking into his deep blue eyes. Those deep blue eyes I have loved ever since we were children._

_"How can I know?" he insisted. I knew he felt uneasy, I knew he didn't want to let me go to the Hunger Games. He was my best friend after all._

_"Because I will have to give you your necklace back," I answered, giving him a half smile._

_We looked into each other's eyes for a couple of seconds, not daring to blink. I felt my heart beating faster and faster, and without even noticing it, I stood on my tiptoes and placed a gentle kiss on Grisham's lips. It only lasted for a few seconds, and I pressed my eyes close, wishing for the moment to last forever. No Hunger Games, no worries. Just like back when we were children._

_I pulled away quickly when I saw two Peacekeepers entering the room violently. The two of them chuckled, muttering things like 'oh, look at these lovebirds!'. I felt my cheeks blushing to a dark red and looked at Grisham, who seemed completely dazed by my kiss. He was taken away from me by one of the Peacekeepers, but I refused to let him go. I held his hand for a few seconds, until I couldn't resist the Peacekeeper's pull and I was taken to the train, where I joined Cato, Brutus and Enobaria once again._

_But just before I disappeared through the Justice Building back door, I saw Grisham breaking into a grin._

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When I come back to reality, I'm being held up by the giant boy from Eleven. I can't remember his name, I think it was something like Theo. He's shaking me by the arms and screaming.

"Was it you?" he yells at me. I don't even know what he's talking about, but a feeling of certainty rushes through my brain: I'm going to die.

The Eleven boy starts hitting me carelessly. I feel the pain in my stomach, in my arms, in my legs. And the worst pain I feel is when the Eleven boy's knife digs into my jugular.

I touch Grisham's wooden necklace, and everything blackens out.

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**So that was it! I hope you liked it, Please R&R!**

**Juliet :)**


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